Teachers and students across Illinois have a prime chance to speak up about what's going right and wrong in their schools. They have until the end of March to answer a statewide survey on how well their schools are performing.

If everyone participates, more than 1 million students in sixth through 12th grades and 100,000 teachers will be heard.

Students are being asked such questions as, how often do you debate the meaning of a reading assignment? How often do you write a few sentences to explain how you solved a math problem? Does the teacher ask difficult questions on tests?

Teachers are being asked if their principal places the needs of children ahead of personal and political interests. They're being asked about problems at school, such as thefts, fights, gang activity and if they've faced threats of violence.

University of Chicago researchers developed the survey from decades of research about what makes a school successful. Schools that score high on at least three of five basic academic and cultural benchmarks are 10 times more likely to improve student achievement in math and reading than low-scoring schools, researchers say. Those highly rated schools also are far less likely to see scores stagnate.

Judging from a similar annual survey given to CPS students and teachers, the responses won't all be flattering. Last year, for example, teachers at a number of Chicago schools said they wouldn't recommend their own school to parents. CPS, that's a call to action.

The stakes stand to be highest for principals, who may be evaluated, at least in part, on the responses from teachers and students. All responses are anonymous. Some principals have been grumbling about that. Cloaked in anonymity, "you might go a little further than otherwise if you knew your comments were attached to you,'' Jason Leahy, executive director of the Illinois Principals Association, told the Tribune's Diane Rado.

Some principals fear survey results could be used to settle scores and blackball effective principals who stepped on teachers' toes.

We hope principals will welcome the survey as a leading indicator of how their schools are performing. These results track safety and other school-environment issues that principals should want to identify and resolve.

The survey is mandatory for teachers and students, but there's no penalty for not answering the questions. If too few students or teachers participate, a school's results won't be posted online or on the redesigned school report card to be unveiled in the fall by the Illinois State Board of Education. Parents won't be able to see where their schools excel or fall short compared to other schools in the same area. That would be a huge lost opportunity.

The survey ends March 31. State officials say participation rates so far are encouraging.